GDC 2008: Deconstructing Drake's Fortune

Game designer Richard Lemarchand recently gave would be developers at GDC insights to creating a successful game Naughty Dog style. He started out with the nitty gritty facts: "Have healthy code" says Lemarchand as it makes the game development process smoother and more polished in the long run. This allows for deadlines to be met, something Naughty Dog is proud to have never missed. Lemarchand claims that "Collaboration is key" and gives examples of how designers and engineers, typically specialized and segregated groups, would move to each others desks to help one another. One of the interesting things about Naughty Dog is that they have no official "producers", anyone at Naughty Dog can be heard and pitch ideas, no matter how bad the ideas are, they will always be respected.